USA TODAY

Articles from Vol. 141, No. 2816, May

Global expenditures on advertising grew 3.3% in 2012 to $497,300,000,000, a gradual rebound since the sudden 9.6% drop in 2009 as a result of the economic downturn. Spending has responded to shifts in popular media with Internet advertising the fastest-growing...

THE ISSUE OF WELFARE and entitlement reform has simmered on the back burner for decades. As the political leadership of the Federal government remains dysfunctional in the midst of a crisis in which Social Security and Medicare are near financial insolvency...

If you're a regular reader of these pages, you know that food, especially sweet treats, is a favorite of our reviewers. Norman Love Confections always seems to bring something new and delicious to the table. This time around it's the single-origin...

PRES. BARACK OBAMA undoubtedly knows that if he had offered a budget to Congress that included cuts sufficient to eliminate the national debt over the next decade, he necessarily would become the villain of his own party (having to bleed many a pet...

A CLOUD OF NEGATIVITY blankets youth sports, as the trend towards abusive behavior is more rampant than we realize. Young athletes who are victims of psychological abuses by amateur coaches are impacted throughout their lives. However, today's parents...

SINCE the turbulent 1960s, acts of civil disobedience often have been associated with liberal politics. That may explain why Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made national news when he asserted Christians may need to be willing to go to jail...

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PUBLIC and congressional opinion, P bureaucratic pressures, limits on resources, and the views of Allied powers all constrain the foreign policy of even the most powerful U.S. presidents. Well-intended foreign policy and military...

Billions of trees killed in the wake of mountain pine beetle infestations have not resulted in a large spike in carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, contrary to predictions. Massive tree die-offs release less carbon into the atmosphere than...

We ran across the Duluth Trading Company late last year and were absolutely delighted with our acquisition of both men's and women's clothing, especially the male and female versions of Flapjack Shirt Jacs, so there was no hesitation to go back to...

WE AS A NATION have been dependent on foreign oil for such a long time that it may come as a shock to many Americans that the U.S. finally is poised to break free of its addiction to oil from the Middle East within the next decade. That is not big...

I RECENTLY DROVE the 528 miles on I-75 from Atlanta, Ga., to Sarasota, Fla. I lost track of the endless number of billboards on the side of the interstate offering gas, hotel rooms, and food. In the midst of it all there was one that grabbed my attention....

Why sacrifice power for size when you can have both? Eureka's new AirSpeed ONE models weigh just nine pounds, but are proven to clean carpets better than top-selling bagless uprights. AirSpeed ONE is engineered to reach under furniture, and also...

WITH THE FEDERAL debt spiraling out of control, many Americans sense an urgent need to find a political leader who is able to say "no" to spending. Yet, they fear that finding such a leader is impossible. Conservatives long for another Ronald Reagan,...

OUR COUNTRY is in danger of becoming the world's first "derivative economy." Once renowned around the globe for our prodigious ability to manufacture, invent, and revolutionize, the U.S. is becoming a place where pastimes take precedence. Image is...

ARE WE HEADED for the end of our brief time as the leader of the free world? Many think China or India will replace us before 2030. Freedom is what made us great. We showed it in World War II and in the race to the moon. Freeing our education system...

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Remembering the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster that happened two years ago, Green Cross International, Geneva, Switzerland, is calling for the phasing out of the use of nuclear energy and the movement towards more environmentally-friendly,...

IT WAS GETTING on toward dusk; it was early spring and comfortably cool. My middle son and I were having a catch to loosen up his arm after a winter of baseball inactivity. Junior high school tryouts were the following week. He was going out for catcher....

ALFRED HITCHCOCK (1899-1980), cinema's master of A suspense, arguably remains the most well-known director in movie history. Beyond the fact he was a legendary filmmaker, no small part of this fame and familiarity is tied to Hitchcock's signature cameo...

A common vitamin may have the potential to provide a powerful weapon to fight certain "superbugs," antibiotic-resistant staph infections that are seen as a threat to public health. The research, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, found...

Marriage may not always be as beneficial to health as "experts" have led us to believe, according to a study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Researchers made two discoveries that explain why. First, marriage provides less protection...

IMAGINE a group of passengers playing gin rummy on the Titanic, as it is about to meet its fate. This is the game the President and Congress have been playing with the budget and the deficit over the past year. Shrieks of horror came from the Oval...

ONE FRIDAY EVENING, we were lounging around with hot cocoa listening to the recording of the performance of the Catholic Mass, "To Hope," written, arranged, and performed by Dave Burbeck and a host of vocalists and musicians. The fact that we were...

"REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS are folding like cheap lawn chairs," you might say, "and political eunuchs in the GOP establishment are bowing to Pres. Barack Obama like he bows to foreign dictators. Any hope of repeal is long dead, and besides, Chief Justice...

An economist asks, "Why in the world are we all Keynesians again?" THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT responded to the financial crisis and recession that began in 2007-08 with an unprecedented fiscal stimulus. Passed in February 2009, the American Recovery...

Los Angeles once was a city of newcomers. Not anymore, according to demographic projections released by the University of Southern California's Population Dynamics Research Group, which shows that, by the end of this year, a majority of Los Angeles...

What's new in museums around the country? Among the interesting exhibitions on view are: "Great and Mighty Things": Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection, through June 9, Philadelphia (Pa.) Museum of Art. Punk: Chaos to Couture,...

THE FIRST MOVIE I remember seeing in a theater was John Sturges' adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novella, "The Old Man and the Sea" (1958, with Spencer Tracy in the title role). Fittingly, I saw this parable about an aging fisherman's ongoing battle...

ARE ENGLISH writers in China more accurate than English writers in the U.S.? The answer is yes, according to a recent audit by Grammarly.com, an automated proofreading tool designed to help English writers--including professionals, job seekers, students,...

I'F YOU ARE on any e-mail list, you could get a missive saying Pres. Barack Obama is going to repeal the 22nd Amendment and run for a third term. In fairness, these e-mails also were circulated at the end of the Clinton and Bush administrations. It...

How much a person eats may be only one of many factors that determine weight gain. A study by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif., suggests that a breath test profile of microorganisms inhabiting the gut might be able to tell physicians...

DO WE REALLY want more babies? Doesn't our uncertain world already have too many warm bodies? What about those population disaster scenarios by Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome's scientists four decades ago: they solemnly predicted that the global...

AMERICAN foreign policy in Asia is plagued by three problems. First, Washington's policy centers on a contradiction: making China more powerful while seeking to make it act as though it is weak. The "containment" and "engagement" aspects of the policy...

In the search for rogue nukes, researchers have discovered an unlikely tool: astronomical radio telescopes. Researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus, previously demonstrated another unlikely tool, when they showed that south Korean GPS stations...

RELIGIOUS FAITH has many manifestations. There are people of sincere piety for whom the religious life is a source of deep and powerful meaning. For them and others, a spiritual response to the beauty of the world, the vastness of the universe, and...

IN 1951, William F. Buckley Jr., a graduate of Yale University the year before, published his first book, God &amp; Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom". In the preface, he described two ideas that he had brought with him to college...

THE FISH near the bottom of the aquatic food chain often are overlooked, but they are vital to healthy oceans and estuaries. Collectively known as forage fish, these species --including sardines, anchovies, herrings, and shrimp-like crustaceans called...

Get ready Play-Doh fans, creativity has been taken to the next level with the introduction of Hasbro's Play-Doh Plus compound. From the little princess in the family to the aspiring construction worker, kids can plus up their creations with this...

THE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that collects statistics and publishes economic reports. In recent years, however, the Paris-based bureaucracy also has ventured into policy activism,...

GUN CONTROL always has been a controversial subject in the U.S., but it should not be. The Second Amendment clearly states we have the right to bear arms. Founding Father George Washington said, "A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined,...

WEARING A black bolero jacket, yellow balloon pants, and a red fez, Noble Drew Ali (formerly Timothy Drew) popped up on a street corner in Newark, N.J., and announced that he was the long-awaited reincarnation of the founder of an ancient religious...

IT IS IRONIC that patients who bring medical malpractice suits against physicians frequently bear a stigma. They are accused of subjecting doctors to untold anguish because many of their lawsuits are regarded as frivolous; they are assailed for driving...

THE PRICE OF POLITICS BY BOB WOODWARD SIMON AND SCHUSTER, NEW YORK 2012, 380 PAGES, $30 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An associate editor at The Washington Post, Bob Woodward has shared two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting on Watergate and the...

MOST PEOPLE do not think of cooking their food as a bad thing. Chances are, you love baked potatoes, green bean casserole, glazed cooked carrots, and much more. Sure, you are game for the occasional salad and veggie fray with dip, but the thought of...

YOUR PLANE has not even left its gate, and you already feel defeated by another harried day of travel. You hit every traffic light in the city on the way to the airport; waited in a slow, frustrating line to check yourself in for your flight; and went...

Verb Products, Austin, Texas, is a new professional hair care line that recently launched nationwide, featuring six products retailing for $12 each. Everything in the Verb product line is water-based and vitamin-enriched while containing natural...

DO YOU HAVE a favorite character actor? He or she is that performer who is an indispensable satellite figure to the story or lead character. One does not always remember the individual's name, but the face and mannerisms immediately signify a bonus...

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "THE ART OF GOLF," devoted to the artistic representation of the sport, demonstrates the fascinating interrelationship of art and sport in Victorian Britain, and is highlighted by "The Golfers" a renowned 1847 work by painter...

Inspired by fine jewelry, Frends--the fashion-based electronic accessory brand--has introduced the first luxury headphones made specifically for women, with designs so chic they double as a fashionable accessory. Not only do they look and sound fabulous,...